The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American recently passed each other in opposite directions.

George Carlin
About This Quote

The statement above was made in 1956 by Representative R.W. Walshe of California and was often repeated since then. It made the rounds in the 1980s in a number of books, including "The Decline of Intelligence in America," by James Flynn, and is quoted many times on the Internet. How true it is remains unclear, however.

An analysis of the IQ scores for 5-year old American children from 1947 to 1970 shows that American children had higher average IQs than they do today. The rate of increase in child IQ scores dropped dramatically during 1970–80, however, and has decreased substantially since then.

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